This is the eighth in the Ishmael Jones series, but if you haven’t read any of the others, you shouldn’t have too much trouble figuring out what’s going on… mainly because you get a neat little introduction at the very start of the book, explaining that Ishmael is an alien whose ship crash-landed in England in the sixties. Machines on board disguised him as human, and he’s been hiding in plain sight since, although the fact that he doesn’t age is making his life rather more complicated. He’s ended up working for the Organisation, a secret government agency which handles… let’s just call them extraordinary events.
Assigned with his partner Penny to keep an eye on a VIP on a train, what should be a simple assignment turns into a murder investigation and a classic locked-room mystery, and Ishmael and Penny only have an hour to solve the case.
While this was well written, the solution to the mystery was so blindingly obvious to me immediately I couldn’t figure out why it took an hour for it to even occur to Ishmael. Part urban fantasy, part cozy mystery, I was intrigued by the world-building and the characters, but frustrated by the obviousness of the plot. I’d read more in the series because I enjoyed Ishmael and Penny, but I’d hope for something a little deeper and more complex in the way of plots. Four stars.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.
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